User Reviews

Pours a dark brown almost black with a small amount of tan head. Roasted malts, coffee, and raw cocoa on the nose; follows onto the palate. Finishes with more roasted malt. Not bad, a little thin though.

On tap at Downhouse a little while ago, and have shared several growlers.

A: Pours dark brown, nearly black with a small tan head. Light lace, but the ring of foam sticks throuhout.
S: Roasted malt, bread, some chocolate. BIG coffee flavors. Though never overbarring or acrid.
T: Again big on the roast and coffee flavors. Cream, chocoalte, vanilla. Bread biscuit flavors. Finish with coffee again, but never acrid.
M/D: A medium to full body. Good carbonation and creamy smooth. Easy to sip. I enjoy this everytime I try it. Though one in a sitting is enough.

A big coffee stout. The coffee is right up front and center. Though not nearly as rough and acrid as some other examples. I like it a lot. Still, just does not make the cut as one of the ellite coffee stouts around.

A: Pours what appears to be pitch black in the glass. It's a very deep brown. Some light around the edges of the glass. Still nice carbonation. Initially a half finger of light tan. Leaving some lacing bits.

S: Very pronounced coffee on the nose, akin to a FBS. Dark chocolate. Roast. Some vanilla. Chocolate milk like character.

T: Dark chocolate bitterness. Ground coffee. Some roast. That vanilla and cocoa like sweetness to match the bitter dark chocolate. Finish has lingering rich cocoa. Maybe a hint of booze.

This RICO (Russian Imperial Coffee Oatmeal) on draft pours up regular lookin. Dark brown. No crazy head. Aroma is coffeee, Dark malts, vanilla bean, nothin too out of the norm. Tastes of coffeee, and same as nose, not too out of the yoosh ('usual' for the dummies), malty, hop balance, doesn't take a scientist to guess this brew. Full bodied, easy carbo. I give this beer a Lil better score just cuz I loooove coffee beers. And this beer is coffee loaded! I can't ever taste oatmeal so that's whatever here. Any-fart, drink this beer

Tried on tap at Austin Beerworks first anniversary, 12 May 2012. Served in the Hellbent shaker pint.

From the second session, the keg from the first kicked in about 30 minutes.

Medium light brown head is short lived. Lightly carbonated. Very dark brown in color, opaque. Aroma is dominated by coffee, roasty sweet, almost smoky. A says some peanut butter. Taste is similar, coffee, slightly acrid. Lots of caramel. HInt of smokiness. A bit charred. Becomes burnt and dry in the middle. Coffiesh acrid finish and aftertaste.

The best of both worlds, the worst of both worlds. The addition of the coffee gives this beer a lighter body and higher acidity than the beer alone. Dark with a decent head and strong coffee aroma. Strong coffee start (more cold brew than beer) the complexity fades in the middle and picks up toward the end where there is a bit of chicory/roasted grain. Lighter than expected body and medium carbonation. Very good as a hybrid, if that's what you're after.

Very drinkable, very smooth, but no complexity whatsoever.
The nose is pretty much just cold brew coffee and the taste is the same. Overly sweet to me, even for an oatmeal stout. I'm not sure why they're putting "Russian" in the style description.
Overall, it's fine, but with the local hype, I was expecting so much more. It's not something I would probably get again with so much else available during the stout months.

The brewery calls Sputnik a Russian Imperial Coffee Oatmeal Stout.
Smells straight up like an iced coffee. Intriguing. Cream, sugar, roasted coffee beans, its all there. The similarities don't end there. The impression that Im drinking an iced latte or other sweetened cold drink from a coffeeshop continues as I sip. The astringency that adding coffee to beer sometimes brings out is gladly missing in this brew, but I think the body of the beer may have absorbed the shot. While its still very much medium to medium-full bodied, I prefer my RIS's to be pretty weighty. There is a bit more flavor development on towards the finish which brings out some chocolate and a deeper roastiness that keeps it from being cloying, which still reinforces the whole iced coffee ideal. Overall, this beer is pretty delicious in a unique way.

Draft at oddfellows...
Pours a dark brown color, oddly enough, with about a finger of head. Figured this would be jet black.
Nose is coffee. That's about it. A nice coffee though.
Taste is much sweeter than I thought. It is not just carbonated coffee as a lot of coffee stouts are. VERY creamy mouthfeel, a bit thinner than I wanted... I assume the oatmeal helps a lot on the creaminess factor. Despite it not being overpowered by coffee, there really isn't much else there but the coffee... glad I tried it.

Had this a couple of times over the weekend. Once at Hopfields and once at a NYE house party. Excellent. Just excellent. Reminded me a lot of Peche Mortel, but the coffee flavor was much stronger in this and IMO better.

The beer was black. I can definitely say that. When I served it at a NYE party, the beer definitely stained the red Solo cup (not just a cup... a friend) that I poured it in. Nothing special, but not bad either.

The smell was coffee. Whoa, boy. Coffee. Nicely rounded and full-bodied coffee. Cuvee knows what they're doing. When I popped open the growler at the NYE party, you could smell this thing from across the room. Mmmm... strong.

The beer was fairly dry and relatively light. Good carbonation kept it feeling fresh. The taste was mostly the coffee, but there was also a roasted, chalky background that complemented the coffee quite well. This isn't really a RIS, but who cares about styles anyway? Damned tasty. The sips definitely brought back Peche Mortel to my mind, but the coffee in this thing was much stronger and much better.

Overall, this was excellent work that nailed the RICO style. I was glad to have it again and this beer once again cements the quality of ABW in my mind.

S. Coffee straight off and lots of it. Sweet malts, not too much else.

T. More coffee, more sweet malts, and a slight nuttiness. Maybe some chocolate. This is an RIS that leans towards sweetness rather than bitterness.

M. Very smooth and creamy from the oats. Medium bodied. Prickly carbonation.

O. As coffee stouts go this is a pretty good one. As RI stouts go it's a bit on the thin side in terms of heft. It definitely doesn't have the weight and presence of something like The Czar or Stone RIS, but it's still a seriously good beer from a young brewery. I want to try this one with some food.

I want to preface my review with an admission: I don't like coffee that much at all. It was a risk for me to try this beer, but i had to give it a try.

The beer had a typical dark brown/black body with very little head. It was not foaming much at all, and the smell definitely hit you hard with the coffee aroma. It lives up to its name.

I was somehow hoping that it wasn't too overpowering in the taste department with the coffee presence. As opposed to other beers that had coffee in them, I do feel this particular beer was well-balanced and easy to drink.

The only thing that I felt that this beer fell flat was in the mouthfeel department. It felt a bit too flat for my taste, and for me it did feel a bit too thin as well.

It's still a pretty dang good beer coming from ABW, and I know many of you will enjoy this.

This beer is litterally straight up coffee. No real beer aspect to it, except it's carbonated.
THis is like the old perculated coffee my grandma used to make. THe nose is big coffee, the smell you guessed it. COFFEE!
The appearance is nice. Black with a nice mocha head.

This is a very unbalanced beer. Why spend the extra coin on this beer if you want coffee, just buy some coffee.

I hate coffee, but love a good coffee flavored beer if it is done right, a good balance.

A: Black, not quite opaque. Light brown head with medium
retention and good lacing.

S: COFFEE! Actually, the coffee combined with sweet malt
makes this smell better that coffee. One of the most
aromatic beers I've come across.

T: The smell doesn't lie. There is coffee in this beer. It
tastes like a carbonated iced toddy. In the best way
possible. Might be too much for some people, but I really
like coffee.

M: Thinner than I had expected for a Russian Imperial, but
that made it more drinkable. Carbonation was also higher
than I was expecting, but that helped to bring out more
coffee aroma. The oats did lend a nice smoothness.

O: A really cool and unique beer. Never had anything like it
and I look forward to trying it again.

Pours a dark black, smell is amazing though. I'm not a coffee drinker but I love coffee beer and the smell of coffee. Sputnik hits he smell of freshly roasted coffee, just right.
Taste is incredible, many of the coffee beers tend to have the bitterness associated with coffee incorporated. Not this one, it's all about the smoothness and flavorness of sweet coffee and it is done beautifully.
This is marketed as a RIS but somehow feels light for the style, never less, it is a very easy drinker and I easily polished off my glass.
I've had a many coffee beers and this by far beats my top coffee beers- Oakshire Overcast, Surly coffee bender, FBS, Victory at sea. The guys at ABW hit a homerun with this beer. Age this in bourbon barrels and can it! This would give KBS a run for its money.